It seems nowadays everybody is on at least one social network website like Facebook, Friendster and MySpace. There are several others on the Internet and more are popping up. It is quite entertaining, no doubt, to put funny pictures of yourself and your friends and maybe even your adversaries. While family and friends welcome such personal updates, it is worth considering about the impact of posting too much personal information on the web.

In the pre-Internet days, it was not easy to get information about anybody at any time but now, simply go to www.google.com and search for your name and if you have a social network site, chances are that your personal information, pictures and blogs may come up on the search engines. Before putting on your social network account embarrassing or compromising information or pictures about you or your friends, note that it may be quite difficult to completely remove such information because search engines and other websites that link to your social network account may store your data without your knowledge.

Already, human resource managers are using the Internet to research about applicants and your entries in your social network account can tell a potential employer a lot about you. Also consider that swindlers may use your social network account to gather information about you and plan their next heist.

So are social networks bad and should be avoided? Of course not! Social network websites provide one of the best ways to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues. A lot of business relationships have been developed on social networks like LinkedIn.com. Indeed, a lot of friendships are made, remade and maintained over Friendster.com. However, one should keep in mind that the open and public nature of social network websites mean that appropriate information should only be submitted to these websites.

By the way, check out Auza.Net’s Friendster profile: www.friendster.com/auzanet and invite us to be your friend. See you!